“Everyone is in favor of free speech… but some people's idea of it is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone else says anything back, that is an outrage.” ― Winston Churchill
A moment of silence is observed at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month because that is when the guns went silent for the armistice that ended World War I. Today was Armistice Day until 1954, since the War to end all Wars didn’t.
It’s 11 years since this post first appeared. I’ve added the picture above, because the Cat’s Eye nebula reminds me of a poppy. It is a stellar tribute to our veterans…
It is Veteran’s Day. In Canada, today is Remembrance Day. Please observe a moment of silence at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
In Flanders Fields
Canadian Army Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
[T]hough we can scarce grasp what they symbolize, this year the poppies are hard to find. Three Canadian provinces had sold out by last Monday, and by the time you read this the rest of the Royal Canadian Legion’s entire stock of 14.8 million will likely be gone.
Rather than having been suspended for rejecting the poppy during choir practice as Bird’s initial tweet read, Natalie outlined that she had been suspended for “rejecting the idea” of the rainbow poppy…
It’s worse that Natalie was suspended for “rejecting the idea.” The idea is the problem.
I do know why Cyara Bird apologized: Unless you enthusiastically support the appropriation of Remembrance Day at SJW whim, and embrace compelled speech, YOU are a bigot.
Every other occasion for reflection or pride does not require fealty to a group of aggrieved, narcissistic activists who occupy the space at the very edges of the Bell curve of human sexuality.
A moment of silence is observed at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month because that is when the guns went silent for the armistice that ended World War I, one hundred years ago today.
This day is Remembrance Day, Armistice Day, Veterans Day. The silence should resound throughout the countries who observe it under those different names, as we recall the sacrifice of those who fought on our behalf.
How could we forget? Easily. We might neglect this history in our primary schools. We might create a university system dedicated to recasting those heroes who rose to meet challenges of personal and cultural annihilation as, at best, quaint throwbacks to an unenlightened age or, at worst, dupes of a “system of power, privilege, and oppression.”
We might wear Che T-shirts, ignorant of the man’s evil. We might stage protests under flags displaying the Swastika, oblivious. We might call our neighbors Fascists if they utter an opinion with which we disagree, because we don’t really know what fascism is.
Instead, let us express our gratitude to those who defended us at Ypres, Belleau Wood, Dieppe, Iwo Jima, The Bulge, the Chosen Reservoir, Khe Sanh, and Fallujah. Let us display a humble respect for those who gave their lives on behalf of the ideal of individual freedom.
Without our continuing consciousness of their effort, those who have died and those who die tomorrow protecting our liberty, are literally dust. If we do not honor these heroes, we are likely to lose our way of life by the worst possible means – the habit of thinking things had to be the way they are and not some other way. We need to reflect on just how amazing it is that we’ve escaped Hobbes’ description of life as “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short,” and how fragile the achievement is.
A moment of silence is a pittance to pay in gratitude to fallen warriors and to revive failing memories.
In Flanders Fields Canadian Army Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.
In some places, a moment of silence is observed at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month because that is when the guns went silent for the armistice that ended World War I. I observe this ritual recognition of the price of peace and freedom. I commend it to you.
This day is Remembrance Day, Armistice Day, Veterans Day. The silence should resound throughout the countries who observe it under those different names.
This pittance of time pays respect to those who gave their lives in our defense. Our remembrance of their gift is not important to them. They don’t know they won. Were they with us still, they would minimize their contribution. If they would discuss it at all.
Remembering these heroes’ values is vitally important to us, lest we gradually come to think that things had to be the way they are, and not some other way. We could become convinced that our present advantages were owed to us, destined and easy: The “natural order of things.”
This is an exceedingly dangerous belief, appropriate to no one: Held only by those who believe the natural order of things guarantees their personal safety and well-being – regardless of their effort, despite their unexamined ideals.
In reality, things are the way they are because some people were – and are – so committed to liberty as to give their own lives in its defense.
They died defending your right to choose to observe a minute of silence.
A moment of silence is observed at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month because that is when the guns went silent for the armistice that ended World War I. I observe this ritual. I commend it to you.
This day is Remembrance Day, Armistice Day, Veterans Day. The silence should resound throughout the countries who observe it under those different names.
A moment silence is observed at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month because that is when the guns went silent for the armistice that ended World War I. I observe this ritual. I commend it to you.
This day is Remembrance Day, Armistice Day, Veterans Day. The silence should resound throughout the countries who observe it under those different names.
I first posted what follows below on 11/11/2008. I don’t know if I can do much better, so here it is again. The changes I would make are to shorten it a bit and to put Terry Kelly’s song at the top.
There, I did.
Please read the story about why the song was written and then listen to it. Then, if you want, come back and read the rest of this post…
The 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month – A Pittance of Time reprise Tuesday, November 11, 2008
If we do not remember those who gave their lives to preserve our way of life, we are likely to lose that way of life by the worst possible means – the habit of thinking things had to be the way they are and not some other way. This lesson is not buried in some dusty tome; our grandparents know better. How could we forget?
Some of us understand that things are the way they are because some soldiers were – and are – so committed to liberty as to give their own lives in its defense. Sadly, the vast majority of us do not seem committed to remember this debt.
There is encouragement for this amnesia. We have many enemies, and putative friends, who desire that we forget past courage and honor. They desire that the remembrance of the justice of the causes of the past should slip away. They view even their own immediate ancestors – who rose to meet challenges of personal and cultural annihilation – as quaint throwbacks to an unenlightened age.
These enemies and self-declared friends are wrong. We must reject their idea that our enemies are simply people we haven’t yet had the intelligence to recognize as our moral equivalents.
Remember Ypres, Belleau Wood and Dieppe. Do not forget Iwo Jima or The Bulge or the Chosen Reservoir or Khe Sanh.
And Khe Sanh is a good example of how an agenda of defeat twists logic: At Khe Sanh 205 Americans were killed, while the North Vietnamese lost between ten and fifteen thousand. The Western press portrayed Khe San as a defeat. Like Tet. Do not forget Tet, where Walter Cronkite surrendered, on our behalf, following our resounding victory.
Our enemies had these “victories” because, while our soldiers were annihilating them, we lost heart. We should certainly remember that.
What we remember will affect what we think. The ritual denigration of the US military continues to affect Associated Press headlines 40 years after Tet, as observed by TOC.
If Veterans day is not an event that counters this defeatism, where will we find the will to win the war against Islamofascism? Respect for those who gave their lives on our behalf LAST WEEK is as necessary as respect for those who died in the Civil War and WWI and WWII and Korea and Viet Nam.
Without our continuing consciousness of their effort, those who have died and those who die tomorrow on behalf of our present freedom, are literally dust. You must not let that happen. They died for their homes and families and friends, and for a rule of law and traditions they cherished and a future they believed in; they died for you.
This truth was not a question until latter half of the 20th Century.
In 1915 John McCrae, a Canadian Army doctor, wrote In Flanders Fields, about the horrors he saw in the Ypres salient.
In Flanders Fields
by John McCrae, May 1915
In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.
It is Veteran’s Day. In Canada, today is Remembrance Day. Please observe a moment of silence at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
